Defending America
I should add that I was also inspired by the event, for several reasons. First and foremost, I was stunned that so few people took the time to read the ProtestWarrior.com signs. We were constantly having to defend ourselves from the Right (who thought we were hippies), and we had to practically beg the Left to read and understand that we weren't one of them. At one point, a pair of elderly leftists with Kerry2004 buttons gave us such enthusiastic thumbs-up signs, I was hyperventilating in the Florida haze from laughing so hard. There's no doubt we're winning the debate on Education reform - the people who CAN read can't comprehend well enough to read a protest banner.
Still, it was strangely comforting to know that we have a Constitution that encourages these people to stand outside in the heat and make fools of themselves. We heard more than a few Republicans shouting back at the more profane demonstrators, which put Steve and I in the rediculous position of acting as schoolmarm (in some cases, for people twice my age), begging them not to stoop to the same level.
But most encouraging (yes, encouraging) was the look and feel of the display the other side was putting on. Despite the fact that we didn't see any of the really wacko A.N.S.W.E.R. types carrying Palestinian flags (or perhaps because of that), I expected my fellow Catholics from the pacifist Pax Christi organization to be less BUSH LIED!!!! and more "kumbaya my Lord". They weren't. Worse yet, if there were Pax Christi people there, I couldn't tell who they were. Was one the old woman all in black screaming, "Bush is a pretend Jesus freak!" (is that a slam or a compliment?) just before saying, "George Bush is the anti-Christ!" (now I'm really confused...)? Or perhaps the young butch-haircut female screaming, "George Bush is a (expletive) (expletive) who doesn't (expletive) care about the (expletive) (expletive) environment!" Or might it have been the man who said, "Bush doesn't effing care about the effing border! Take the illegals out of the jails and put them into effing camps where they belong!"? (Could this have been the fascist the Left keeps calling us? - and no, I didn't edit that quote; he actually said, "effing" - as in "John effing Kerry".)
All things considered (pardon the pun), I couldn't help but see the paltry collection of human debris (there were no more than 100 people there from both sides), turn to Steve and say, "Look around you - we've won." This hit even closer to home as I was leaving, when I heard Pat Tillman was KIA. I have more faith in the American people than to believe that when the Tillmans of the world are measured against the people I met today, more people will say he should have died in vain, and that our troops should be protected from their own patriotic ideals. Come November, people who have never voted, or who have never voted Republican, will close the curtain and look at their choices. They will pull the lever that allowed Pat Tillman to defend his country from all enemies... foreign and domestic.
UPDATE: We met up with Chris Pritchard of DefendingLiberty.com, who was kind enough to take a picture of Steve and I. Hmmm... looks like Mr. Atkins and I still have a ways to go yet, eh? ;-)
